Margaret Van Vliet

Margaret Van Vliet is a Senior Advisor with Social Finance, focusing on issues related to housing and homelessness.

She is an accomplished affordable housing executive with roots in commercial banking and significant performance improvement achievements in state and local government. From 2016 to 2019, Van Vliet served as the Executive Director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission. During her tenure, she led the team that created the housing recovery and renewal plan after the 2017 wildfires. Her organization tripled the amount of new housing financed in two years and garnered new funding sources to sustain a production agenda. Van Vliet also spearheaded a redesign of the County’s homeless system that has increased the pace at which people are moving from the streets to permanent housing.

From 2011 to 2016, Van Vliet directed the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department. Working under two governors, Van Vliet succeeded in securing $60 million in new funding from the legislature, a then-record accomplishment in a single year. She also turned around a troubled federal program that became a top performer in two years.

Van Vliet’s past leadership posts also include service as the director of the City of Portland’s Housing Bureau; chief operating officer of the Housing Authority of Portland; and executive director of Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, the first and largest statewide CDFI. Van Vliet received a Bachelor’s degree from Linfield College.